Tuesday, 26th August                 LIVERPOOL

Robyn writes: Today dawned much finer than yesterday, thankfully - it's been quite cloudy at times but we've had no rain. We had a very slow start to the day, though, as we tried to puzzle out the best way to get around on Liverpool's buses, but finally got ourselves organised to head out just before 10. We went first to our local railway station, Moorfields, where we bought two all day travel passes which cover both rail and bus (cost us nearly 10 pounds for both). Then we caught the train in the underground to Central Station. From there, we walked along until we found a bus stop, and hopped on it to get to the main bus station at Liverpool One. We talked to the folks there about which bus to take, and then caught the 82 up the hill to Liverpool's Chinatown so we could visit the Anglican Cathedral just up the hill.

I just love the Liver birds! This was our view of them from our balcony this morning.

This is an amazing building - just over 110 years since they started building it, but it wasn't completed until the 1980s! Oh well, when you think about it, many of the great cathedrals of Europe took hundreds of years to build, and they did have two world wars to contend with. The cathedral did actually suffer bomb damage during WWII, but not too severe, and it has all been repaired. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world and is quite amazing to walk into. The Lady Chapel alone is just beautiful, and as big as a lot of major churches. The stained glass in the main section is truly magnificent. We had a long look around, then a cuppa in the cafe before paying 5 pounds each to go up to the top of the tower. This involved two lift trips and about 120 steps; the last bit was fabulous and a bit scary as we climbed above the bells inside the tower with the wind howling around us! The 360 degree views from the top were quite amazing along the river and across the city. On the way down, we stopped at the 3rd floor where we saw a beautiful collection of religious embroidery, some hundreds of years old, and we could look out across the church. It was a really worthwhile visit and we really did enjoy the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral

View towards the river from the top

Magnificent stained glass

By now it was lunchtime, so we decided to combine a trip on the famous Liverpool ferry with lunch. We caught a bus back to Liverpool One, then walked the couple of blocks back to Merseyside and along the riverbank to the ferry terminal. This was a bit confusing and very badly advertised or explained inside, but we finally ended up successfully with two return tickets for 8.50 pounds each, and the next ferry was ready to leave at 2.

We enjoyed the trip, out to the headlands along the Liverpool side of the river, then back along the Birkenhead side, with commentary about what we were seeing and the famous Gerry and the Pacemakers song "Ferry Cross the Mersey" playing! It was quite cold in the wind but we were on the side at the front of the ferry so it was a bit sheltered but we still got a great view. The first stop was at Seacombe, then Woodside, where we got off.

Ferry, crossing the Mersey

We walked up the hill to look for some lunch (fairly starving by this time; thank heavens we carry muesli bars in our backpacks!) and at the top of the hill found "The Riverview" pub which certainly did meet its description - it had a wonderful view of the river. There was hardly anyone there so we easily got a table with fabulous views over to Liverpool, and ordered our lunch. This took ages to come but was nice when it did arrive. Unfortunately by then we had missed the next return ferry and realised that the next (and last one of the day on our tickets) wasn't for nearly an hour. (The day trip tickets are between morning and evening commuter times, so we had to leave there by 20 to 5 at the latest.) Not really long enough to go off and explore over there, but quite a while to sit and twiddle your thumbs!

So we ended up walking to the train station nearby and just using our day passes to head back to Liverpool right away. I was a bit weary by this stage so came home to put my feet up while Lex went off to Liverpool One, the main CBD to check it out. After such a big late lunch, we've just had soup for tea and are having a quiet evening in. Have done more washing which should get us through to York next week, at least. It has fined up this evening and we had a glorious sunny late afternoon - hope it holds for tomorrow!